Marin

In an action against the City of San Rafael (City) seeking damages for inverse condemnation the superior court, sitting without a jury, entered judgment against plaintiffs Reese and Katherine Marin who have appealed from the judgment.

The following of the trial’s evidence was substantially uncontroverted.

A hillside within the City sloping generally from east to west at one time had a small seasonal natural watercourse running downward upon it. Many years ago the City constructed, or at least accepted, Jewell Street which crossed the hillside and watercourse from north to south. Jewell Street interrupted the watercourse’s flow of rain waters, apparently causing them to run somewhere down its gutters. At some later time the land on either side of Jewell Street was subdivided into building lots, and the piece of land on the street’s westerly side upon which the watercourse had once run downward became known as lot 7.

Some time prior to 1942 the City caused to be installed a 12-inch drainage pipe along and under the surface of Jewell Street to a point where the pipe turned westward onto lot 7. It then continued over the lot for 12 feet where it emptied its waters upon the…